


Misconception

by agrajag



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Getting Together, M/M, Misunderstandings, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 10:05:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18134333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrajag/pseuds/agrajag
Summary: Keith and Lance's neighbor suddenly starts acting cold toward Lance and they come to the conclusion she's upset because he had sex out of wedlock.





	Misconception

About a year ago, Keith and Lance had decided to move in together. To the general population, it would have seemed like a terrible idea, and while it's true that they had gotten off to a rocky start, they were friends now. Well, sort of. They didn't antagonize each other on a daily basis anymore. That had to count for something, right? And they weren't simply moving in together because they didn't know anyone else who was looking for a roommate but because they genuinely enjoyed spending time with each other. 

Well, sometimes.

Although Keith got along with Lance more than he'd let on. (But more on that later.)

It helped that Lance had spent a good portion of that year visiting his family in Cuba and Keith had just reconnected with his estranged mother in Korea. All in all, the two of them were in the apartment at the same time for maybe six months out of that first year, which had worked perfectly for them. However, the time they did spend in each other's company was actually enjoyable. They went grocery shopping together, they did their laundry together, and they even went to the monthly meetings the building held in the common room together. Their mutual friends were over joyed the two of them were not only finally getting along but were also making the most out of living together.

The thing that surprised Keith the most wasn't getting along with Lance. They had known each other for several years now. Dealing with people he knew was easy. No, what surprised Keith the most was how well he was getting along with the neighbors. Especially Mrs. Alvarez. He figured Lance would have been her favorite, considering they had a home country in common. And he had seen them talking in the hallway, excitedly and in Spanish, about Cuba. Among other things. They had seemed really close when he and Lance had moved in, but ever since he had returned from his trip to Korea, Mrs. Alvarez seemed almost cold toward Lance. When they would pass her in the hall, she'd immediately greet Keith while giving Lance the cold shoulder. Sure, Keith wasn't exactly an expert on social interaction, but he was pretty sure that was considered incredibly rude.

Had Lance said something to her to make her act that way? Keith knew from experience that Lance had a tendency to not think before he spoke -- and he could be brash. Although that side of Lance usually was reserved for people around their own age. Specifically people he was flirting with -- well, trying to flirt with -- and Keith. He was a big fan of the 'pull their pigtails' method, despite the fact that it never seemed to work for him, and Keith was in no hurry to suggest he try a different approach.  So, maybe Mrs. Alvarez had caught Lance in the at (since he liked to flirt with the woman who lived in Room 2B) and _that_ was what had offended her. After the fourth incident, Keith could be sure it wasn't a coincidence she kept forgetting Lance, and he decided to talk to his roommate about it.

"Man, I don't know what happened," Lance said. His mouth was full of Poptart, and it was a miracle Keith understood him. Thankfully he finished chewing before he continued. "Everything was great. She even made me some ropa vieja the one day. We hung out in her apartment and had dinner with some beers. It felt like home. Then next thing I know, she's acting like I'm the devil."

"I wouldn't say it's _that_ bad," Keith muttered.

"You don't know Cuban grandmothers, Keith," Lance countered, pointing his Poptart at him, crumbs flying all over the couch. Keith tried to hide a grimace at the mess. "It might not be _that_ bad now, but it's going to get _that_ bad."

"Well, if they're anything like Korean grandmothers, I think I've got an idea of what it's like."

Lance's face lit up.

"You met your grandmother too?"

"Oh, no. Sorry. I was just kidding," Keith said, forcing a laugh even though it wasn't exactly a funny sort of joking. "It really was just my mom and my uncle. Though, I don't know how sure I am that Kolivan is _actually_ related to us."

"Then our cultures do have something in common. I've got so many tias that are just super close friends that just sort of got adopted into the family."

Keith smiled. He loved when Lance talked about his family. They were all so close, and sounded super nice, and back before the private detective had tracked down his mother, listening to Lance's stories was the closest he got to family. Sure, he had Shiro and Adam once they had taken him out of the foster system. (And then Curtis after... _after_.) And they were his family. Nothing would ever change that. But a couple of guys in their mid-20s felt more like older brothers than anything else and it was only them in their moderately sized apartment, so it still managed to feel lonely. Lance's stories of a bustling house were reminiscent of all the stories Keith loved to read all those years when it was just him. He wished he could meet Lance's family some day, but perhaps it was for the best that he hadn't. He knew he'd get overwhelmed and make a complete fool out of himself. If he were to ever meet Lance's family, he'd want to make the best impression he possibly could. Not like they were dating or anything but still.

The secret was: Keith wished they _were_ dating.

"Anyway, we got off topic there for a second," Lance said, bringing Keith back from his thoughts. "I think you're going to have to do some snooping, since Mrs. A loves you now. See what's up."

"Oh no," Keith said, shaking head head frantically. "I am not doing anything of the sort."

"Oh, come on man. Do it for me? Do it for your bestest bro?"

Lance clasped his hand under his chin, batted his eyes, and turned the full force of his pleading pout on Keith.

Keith was doomed.

He never could say no to him when he did that.

"Fine," he said, defeated. Lance started cheering, getting more Poptart crumbs everywhere. "But I'm not going out of my way to do this. You'll find out next time I, like, naturally run into Mrs. Alvarez. I'm not banging down her door or anything."

Lance sighed.

"Oh, okay. I guess. I should have anticipated that you'd be a party pooper about this." Keith yelled out a disgruntled 'hey' but Lance continued talking over him. "But thanks for this. It _was_ bothering me that she pulled such a 180."

"You're welcome," Keith said, smiling softly. "I mean, you _are_ my bestest bro after all, right?"

"Yay!"

Lance was ecstatic, dancing around the apartment, but promptly forgot about their covert operation within 24 hours. Keith almost forgot as well until Mrs. Alvarez passed him in the hallway as he was on his way back home from work. She quickly doubled back and patted his arm gently to get his attention. Having not expected that, Keith jumped nearly a foot into the air.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear. I didn't mean to scare you," she said softly. "I wouldn't bother you when you're coming back from work, but I realized I might not get another chance to speak to you alone. You're almost always with Lance, and I'm afraid this concerns him. Would you mind following me to my apartment?"

Keith wanted nothing more than to take a shower, crawl into bed, and play Animal Crossing. But he also knew the odds of another opportunity like this falling into his lap were slim to none since, yeah, he and Lance _were_ almost always by each other's side. He followed Mrs. Alvarez to her apartment, 2E, and waited nervously as she made him cafe con leches (which Lance had once assured him was more than just coffee with milk, and he had reason to believe him now because it was taking her _forever_ to prepare). Finally, once she had set a mug in front of Keith and took a sip from her own, she started talking.

"I know I'm old enough now that I should know a, shall we say, _delicate_ way of putting this. But I feel as if I should get right to the point." 'Please do,' Keith thought as he picked up his mug and took a sip. 'Damn, that was good.' "While you were on your vacation..." Yeah, Keith didn't really consider his extended trip traipsing around Korea looking for, and then subsequently spending time with, his mother a 'vacation' but he let it slide. "Lance had a girl over at your apartment." Mrs. Alvarez paused dramatically. "At night." Another pause. "For sex."

Keith choked on his coffee.

"Oh, I know, honey. This must come as a great shock to you." She reached over to pat his back. "I'm so sorry I had to be the one to tell you, but you needed to know."

"Oh, well, uh, thank you?" Keith said, although it sounded more like a question. He definitely was questioning what weird world he had walked into. He wasn't sure why Mrs. Alvarez thought he _needed_ to know. Because he definitely didn't need to know. The last thing he needed was to think about Lance having sex, but Mrs. Alvarez seemed to think it was a serious enough matter to tell him, so he wasn't about to belittle her for it. He did, however, start chugging from his mug to avoid having to say anything else. Unfortunately, she continued to look at him expectantly, and Keith swore on all he held dear he was going to kill Lance. "I, uh, I hope he didn't, uh, make too much noise or anything."

Mrs. Alvarez frowned.

"Oh, no. You really _are_ in shock." She leaned over the table and patted Keith's arm again. At least this time he didn't go jumping like a rabbit. "If you ever need to talk about it... about anything, you know where to find me, okay?"

Keith took that as the dismissal he hoped it was, thanked Mrs. Alvarez for the cafe con leche, and high tailed it back to the apartment. He slumped down and collapsed on the floor as soon as he closed the door. He out out a deep sigh, reaching for his stress ball key chain. He honestly was afraid it was going to burst with how hard he was squeezing it. God, that had been an incredibly weird, but more importantly stressful, situation. Between the adrenaline and the caffeine, there was no way he was getting any sleep that night. He thanked his lucky stars that he had the next day off. It wasn't long before Lance emerged from his room, finding Keith sitting cross legged on the floor and playing with his stress ball, and he managed to coax him onto the couch.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Keith reassured Lance once his coddling started to become too much for him. "It's just... I talked to Mrs. Alvarez." Lance's mouth dropped open into a perfect O and oh boy, did Keith spend too much time thinking about his friend's mouth. "It's really not _that_ bad. I just got stressed out because I wasn't expecting to have a conversation right after work, and she snuck up on me, and it was all just too much, you know?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course," Lance said, taking the hint and backing off. Sometimes what Keith needed _was_ some coddling, but usually what helped him best was for him to get some space. It went against everything Lance had ever learned about comforting someone, and he was still learning when to give Keith said space. "I swear I was concerned that it was something bad because of how you were when I found you. Not for selfish reasons. You know that, right?"

Keith laughed weakly. The adrenaline was wearing off, and he was starting to feel his eyelids droop. 

"Yeah, I got that. I know you only act so egotistical to look cool," he joked.

"Hey," Lance cried out. He was clearly about to try and defend his honor (which could take God knows how long once he got good and started) so Keith quickly blurted out what really mattered -- the reason for all of this.

"Mrs. Alvarez said she saw you bring home a hook up," he said bluntly over a spluttering Lance. Unfortunately, that only served to make him splutter more.

"Hook up? Oh my God, you make it sound so sordid. Or was that Mrs. Alvarez's wording? Anyway, it wasn't like that. Though actually, to verify, there's nothing wrong with that. But Nyma and me had been seeing each other for about two months by then. It wasn't a hook up! We just normally went to her place, but there was the one time her building was being fumigated. Of all things. Ugh." Lance ran his hands through his hair. "Great. What a ridiculous cliche and now it's all the bugs's fault. Now I have a good Christian Cuban grandmother judging me. There's nothing worse than that."

"Oh, that's why she was making such a big deal out of it?" Keith asked. He felt a little relieved that Lance, who knew people better than he did, could come up with an explanation that made sense. Though it wasn't entirely comforting for two main reasons. 1. How badly would she judge Keith if he were to ever bring a man home? and 2. That would never be an issue anyway because he was hung up on Lance. Who had a girlfriend now. Wow, he had missed a lot while he had been in Korea. "So, solution... Don't bring Nyma here anymore. Simple enough."

"Even simpler than that," Lance said with a sigh. "We broke up. Amicably," he added quickly. "We both admitted we weren't exactly... compatible when it came to dating. Still sucks, though."

"Yeah... sucks..." Keith said. He hoped it wasn't obvious how he clearly didn't agree and was in fact quite please. "So... what do we do now then?"

Lance shrugged.

"Guess I have to get back into her good graces. We can't have our neighbor angry at me. I'm going to have to be so damn pious it'd impress the pants off of an angel."

"Probably best to start by never saying that again," Keith said with a laugh.

He was feeling much calmer after talking with Lance. He always did. There was just something about his boisterous personality that drew Keith to him and almost soothed him. It was one of the reasons he had started to fall for him, and it was easy enough to hide since all their friends thought it was actually the reason they used to fight. (That had all been Lance's stubbornness.) Now, if he was going to give his all to try and help Lance 'get back into Mrs. Alvarez's good graces,' well that's just what good friends do.

And so they set out to impress their neighbor. Lance went out of his way to hold the door open for her, help carry her groceries to their floor, and even offered to drive her to the store. She acted almost overly sweet to him, but once his back was turned (and once daringly over his shoulder) she was giving Keith a disapproving look. Sometimes even shaking her head sadly. At this rate, the only thing that was going to win her over would be for Lance to get married (preferably to Nyma).

Which didn't seem right to Keith. Even if Mrs. Alvarez was _that_ religious, he couldn't see her holding a grudge against someone for that long over one of the smaller sins. Something wasn't right and his suspicions were confirmed when she managed to catch him coming home from work a second time. Before she could even ask if he head a moment to talk, he was making up excuses as to why he couldn't. The fact that it was excuses, plural, probably tipped her off that he absolutely had a moment to talk. She ushered him to the back of the hallway, by the nondescript side table with the ugly rubber plant, and started talking in a hushed whisper.

"My grandson is just about your age, and I think the two of you would get along like a house on fire. Would you like to give you his number?"

Keith didn't want to be rude, but considering he was generally described as anti-social, he had more than enough friends. Well, if he was the one expected to text first, he could always 'accidentally' forget to.

"Uh, yeah. That'd be fine."

Mrs. Alvarez's face lit up. She quickly pulled a pen and notebook from her purse, scribbled down the number, and placed the piece of paper delicately into Keith's hand.

"I'm glad you said yes. I know the situation must be difficult for you, but you deserve to be happy."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks."

Keith quickly made an excuse (just one this time and so it worked) and once again collapsed (thankfully this time on the couch) once he made it into the apartment. Lance had been dancing around the kitchen, using a Kraft cheese sauce covered spoon as a microphone, but he was by Keith's side in an instant. He sat down next to him, but kept his distance. Keith couldn't help but smile at him.

"Oh, well, I guess it couldn't have been _that_ bad," Lance said. "You don't look too stressed out. You wanna talk about what happened, though?"

"Another Mrs. Alvarez encounter," Keith said with a sigh. It sent some of the strands of hair surrounding his face up, and finding it strangely comforting, he blew out another breath to watch them float up. "I don't know, man. I used to really like her, but now I just see her and want to run. I don't know what she wants from me."

"So it wasn't about me this time?"

"Sort of? She didn't _mention_ you, but called the 'situation' awkward, which I think meant living with you?" Lance looked like a confused puppy and Keith laughed. "She gave me her grandson's number and said she thought we'd get along. I think she wants me to see if he'll be my roommate instead of you."

Lance groaned, throwing his arms up in the air.

"This is getting out of control!" he yelled. Keith was slightly worried that Mrs. Alvarez might have been able to hear him. "Am I going to have to grovel at her feet? Well, I can't have her grandson coming in and taking my place while I'm still working on earning her forgiveness. Undoubtedly she'll tell him to be expecting a call or text, so there's nothing else for it. Gimme the number."

"Why?" Keith asked, but he was already handing Lance the piece of paper.

"'Why?' I'm going to call him, pretending to be you, and tell him his services as replacement roommate won't be necessary." Lance dialed the number. "Hello? Is this Mateo? Oh, great. This is Keith. Your grandmother gave me your number. I just wanted to do the polite thing and call... Let you know that I'm not looking to move in with anyone at the moment." There was a long pause and Lance started to blush. Keith was dying to know what Mateo was saying on the other end. Why hadn't Lance put it on speaker? They were in this together and he was pretending to be Keith. He deserved to hear the entire conversation. "Oh well... that's an entirely different story, then. Can I, uh, call you some other time?" Lance didn't seem to wait for much of an answer because he hung up the phone quickly.

"So..." Keith prompted. Lance sat there, staring at the wall, with his phone slowly slipping from his hand, and didn't answer. Keith reached over and lightly punched his arm, sending the phone to the floor. "What did he say?"

"Mrs. Alvarez wasn't trying to get you a new roommate," Lance said slowly. "She was trying to get you a new boyfriend."

"I'm sorry. What?"

"She honestly was trying to set you up with her grandson. Who does that?" Lance shook his head before bending down to pick up his phone. He checked to make sure it was alright before setting it on the coffee table. He turned to Keith. "I think I'm finally putting it all together."

"How can any of this possibly fit together and make sense?"

"She wasn't mad because I had sex out of wedlock. She was mad because she thought we were together and I cheated on you while you were in Korea. And her way of making it up to you, having told you the awful news? Find you another cute Cuban boy, since that's your type." Lance laughed weakly. "At least in her version of things, you have good taste."

_Oh, if only he knew._

"You said you were going to call him back?"

"Oh, well, I mean... since we had things all wrong... since _I_ had things all wrong, like, I don't want to ruin your chances if you did want to go on a date with Mateo. He seems nice enough from the few minutes we were talking."

"I'm not interested," Keith mumbled.

"Oh, don't write him off like that. Sure, how you guys met will be a weird story to tell people if something ever comes out of it, but you should still give him a chance."

"It's not that. I just... I'm not interested at the moment."

Lance crossed his arms with a huff.

"You haven't been interested since... Well, since before we moved here. I think you need some help getting out of this slump. I'm going to text Mateo..."

"No!" Keith yelled as Lance went for his phone. He grabbed Lance's arm and pulled him back. They both fell onto the couch and Lance, being Lance, went for the lowest move of them all and tickled Keith. The tussle didn't last long after that. They lay there, practically cuddling, as they caught their breath.

"I wasn't going to actually text him," Lance said quietly after a moment. "I was going to text you his number so you don't lose it and watch you sweat until you got the notification."

"Oh."

"I just want you to be happy, you know. If there's a reason you don't want to date anyone, I won't actually push you."

"It's not that I don't want to date."

Lance smiled knowingly at him.

"There's someone you already got your eye on, huh?" 

Keith didn't dignify that with a response. 

"Alright, you keep your secrets. But I hope, whoever it is, that it works out."

It took Lance a few days, but he finally convinced Keith they should go over to Mrs. Alvarez's apartment and explain the truth to her. Keith eventually agreed because it broke his heart to see Lance so sad that the one person he had who he could talk to about Cuba was angry with him. He could suffer through what was to be an incredibly awkward conversation to see him happy once more. So, they went over to her apartment the next day they both were off of work and told her that they were simply roommates. (And Keith tried to not let it show how badly he wanted it to be more.) Mrs. Alvarez must have apologized a dozen times by the time they left, despite Lance assuring her that she was forgiven. Mateo texted Keith a few times even though Keith mostly ignored him, which he knew wasn't fair. Maybe for some people the best way to move on from an unrequited crush would be to putting themselves out there more, but Keith knew that wouldn't work for him. He was amazed that, considering things had been cleared up, Lance hadn't moved on and started seeing someone himself.

"Well, Nyma and I had a pretty big talk when we broke up," he explained, when Keith had dumbly asked one night, while they had been hanging out and watching a movie, because he loved pain. "Yeah, we mostly talked about how our, um, sex stuff..." He whispered that part. "Well, like I said, we weren't compatible. But she also said it wasn't fair for me to enter a committed relationship when I wasn't ready for that."

Keith scoffed.

"The hopeless romantic? Not ready for a committed relationship?"

"Well, I _am_." Lance laughed softly. He reached for the back of his neck and rubbed it. "Just not with her, sadly." 

"Oh. There's someone you're interested in, isn't there?" He frowned. He was thankful that they had turned off the lights for the movie. Hopefully Lance couldn't see how disappointed he looked rather than happy for his friend.

"Yeah," Lance confirmed, drawing the word out. "But I don't think he'd be interested in me. It's fine. It's whatever."

Keith dropped the bowl of popcorn he'd been holding, the kernels flying across the floor.

"He?" he managed to ask, ignoring Lance's complaints about the mess he had just made."

"What?" Lance whipped his head up and looked at Keith. "Uh, yeah, he. You do know I'm bi, right?"

"No, Lance," Keith said in a monotone voice. "I had no idea you were bi. If I had known..."

"If you had known?" Lance prompted.

Had he been sitting that close to Keith the whole time? Keith felt as if his face as on fire and once again was thankful it was dark in the living room. Although, he was starting to realize that it didn't really matter if Lance noticed his "I'm obviously in love with this dork" based reactions. He took a deep breath and took the risk. He reached out and grabbed Lance's hand. Both of their hands were both slightly buttery from the popcorn, but Keith couldn't care less.

"If I had known," he said slowly, "I would have done this a long time ago."

"Oh," Lance said. For once, he seemed to be speechless.

Keith decided to take advantage of that. He leaned over and gave him a quick kiss.

"And that."

"Well, I definitely think you should do that again. Multiple times. For the foreseeable future."

"If that's your way of asking me out," Keith said in between laughs, "then my answer is yes."

They ended the night curled up together on the couch, trying to figure out what they had missed in the movie. Keith had never been happier and he couldn't wait to tell everyone that Lance was now his boyfriend. Well, except Mrs. Alvarez. He was not looking forward to that conversation. He could only imagine the amount of knowing smirking she'd do.

Hopefully she at least made them some cafe con leche.

**Author's Note:**

> hello klancers [waves] long time reader first time writing
> 
> this is based on a r/relationships post that i lost a long time ago because i was writing this between my original story
> 
> this was barely edited sorry


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